BANKING
Deutsche shrinks in Russia
Deutsche Bank on Friday said it would close its corporate banking and securities business in Russia as part of an ongoing shake-up of its global activities. The closure — aimed at reducing “complexity, costs, risks and capital consumption” — was expected to be substantially completed by the end of this year, Deutsche Bank said in a statement. Sources familiar with matter said that 200 people would be laid off as part of the move, but Deutsche Bank would continue to employ more than 1,000 people in Russia.
Manufacturing
Boading filing for bankruptcy
Baoding Tianwei Group Co (保定天威) and three of its business units are filing for bankruptcy, five months after the maker of electrical transformers became the first state-owned Chinese company to default on an onshore bond. Tianwei and its units are insolvent and cannot pay their debts, the company said in a statement on Friday. Tianwei, a unit of government-owned China South Industries Group Corp (中國南方工業集團), said it plans to meet its backers to discuss the bankruptcy.
Soft drinks
Coca-Cola to fight tax bill
The US tax authority has told Coca-Cola that it owes US$3.3 billion in taxes from 2007 to 2009, but the soft drink giant said on Friday it was fighting the huge bill. Coca-Cola Co said in a securities filing that the Internal Revenue Service had sent it a notice saying it had under-reported income during the three-year period by leaving out substantial sums related to licensing fees paid by foreign Coke producers and distributors.
AUTOMAKERS
Mercedes boosts US plant
German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz on Friday said it would invest US$1.3 billion to expand and upgrade sports utility vehicle production at its Alabama plant. Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler AG, said the improved facility in Tuscaloosa would support 300 new jobs and have end-to-end digitization of production processes as part of a “smart factory approach.” Mercedes-Benz sold nearly 221,000 vehicles in the US in the first eight months of the year.
ECONOMY
Argentina GDP grows 2.3%
Argentina’s economy expanded in line with forecasts in the second quarter as the government ramped up spending to encourage private consumption ahead of next month’s presidential elections. GDP in South America’s second-largest economy grew by 2.3 percent, the national statistics agency said on Friday. The median estimate of six economists in a Bloomberg survey was for an expansion of 2.3 percent.
CHIPMAKERS
AMD’s chief architect quits
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chief architect Jim Keller has left the company to look for other opportunities, the chipmaker said on Friday. Keller, who rejoined AMD from Apple Inc in 2012, was in charge of attempts by the chipmaker to produce designs capable of reversing market-share losses to larger Intel Corp. The chipmaker is on track to offer a new design, called Zen, next year, and Keller’s departure is not expected to impact the company, said Drew Prairie, a spokesman for the California-based company.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last